Today's Headlines

Firefighters are on the line

Westside Express. LB strike team helps fight CA’s fifth largest wildfire.
Synopsis: Los Banos Chief Paul Tualla sent 3 firefighters to Butte County to take in fighting the massive Park Fire. As of Monday morning, it has burned 430,000 acres across 4 counites. There are 5,775 firefighters, 25 copters, 411 engines and 122 dozers on the job. Among them are Capt. JP Soares, engineer Brad Ellien and firefighter Diego Flores. They’re working 48-on, 24-off.

A gentler way to pump

Maven’s Notebook. Trying yet again for fish friendlier exports from the Delta.
Synopsis: Maven turns over her platform to environmental activist Alastair Bland, who describes something he has apparently just discovered – the concept of laying perforated pipes beneath gravel at the bottom of Delta sloughs then pulling water through those pipes into infiltration galleries. Instead of sucking water directly from the Delta’s Clifton Court, it is more gently removed through miles of sloughs. Scott Hamilton included the idea in the Water Blueprint for the SJ Valley. Bland eventually notes that an infiltration gallery are used in the Tuolumne River at TID’s new treatment plant. Bland finishes up by allowing Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute to say the Delta can’t withstand additional exports no matter how they’re done. In fact, says Gleic, we’re pretty much screwed: “No amount of conservation, recycling and desalination can feasibly solve CA’s water crisis.”  

Ignoring San Luis expansion

Fresno Bee / Sun Star. Dam raise would take more Delta water; why are environmentalists silent?
Synopsis: Marek Warszawski writes about Sisk Dam west of Los Banos, which is scheduled to be elevated by 10 feet by 2031. This was announced in 2021 at a big to-do, that has been largely ignored. A higher dam increases San Luis Reservoir capacity by 130 TAF, mostly pulled out of the Delta. Warszawski reaches out to Ron Stork of Friends of the River to ask why he isn’t fighting this. Stork says he’s too busy fighting Sites Reservoir, the expansion of nearby Pacheco Reservoir and Trump‘s promise to raise the height of Shasta Dam and inundate the still-wild McCloud River. “Those projects are taking out beautiful portions of God’s green earth where San Luis Reservoir would essentially extend the bathtub ring around an existing 2 million acre-foot reservoir.” One lawyer calls it “the least worst thing.”

Feeding society’s watchdogs

Cal Matters. Bills could restore journalism after Big Tech’s second gold rush pushed industry to brink.
Synopsis: Laura Rearwin Ward, the publisher of the Ventura County Sun writes about two bills that will require Google, Facebook, X and the rest to pay for the content they so blithely appropriate from the news sites that originate it. Facebook, Instagram etc. are so against AB 886 (the CA Journalism Preservation Act) and SB 1327 that they have already removed all newspaper content from their search results. (Which is why responsible researchers use Bing.) Ward quotes Steve Glazer saying SB 1327 is the “most important legislation of his career.”
MAD Take: It is essential that something be done to protect the independent voices still trying to inform and protect the public. But realize this: Many, if not most, newspaper companies were just as rapacious, just as dedicated to their bottom lines, as Meta, Google et al. And those companies will not be required to spend any legislative windfall on producing journalism. The constitutionally protected ability to inform the public must be both independent and sustainable.

He changed tree farming forever

Western Farm Press. UC’s Roger Duncan retires after 36 years.
Synopsis: The UC Cooperative adviser for Stanislaus County “blew up preconceived ideas” about how to grow almonds, peaches and grapes. He was the guy who told growers to plant more trees in orchards; that sunlight falling on the ground was going to waste. He used to host twice-monthly breakfast meetings to stay up on pest threats. The Modesto native was lauded by Mel Machado of Blue Diamond, Art Bowman of Salida Ag Chem and Rob Longstreth. He was also the first to bring a master gardener program to the region.

The perils of flip-flopping

Valley Citizen. Marie Alvarado-Gil’s curious political calculus.
Synopsis: Eric Caine says a willingness to change in the face of new information is often a sign of intelligence, but sometimes it is pure opportunism. In this case, the “strong Republican tilt” of Marie Alvarado-Gil’s district might be at the core of her decision “rather than any deep change of heart.” Eric notes that others have bucked their parties without quitting: “If Alvarado-Gil really wanted an example of how to successfully legislate from a position of dissent and disagreement, she needed only to look at Valley politicians like Adam Gray at the local level and Dennis Cardoza at the national level. … (Gray) still managed to serve his constituents by boosting education and healthcare funding, especially in connection with UC Merced. Most recently, Gray was a prime mover in acquiring state money for the improvement of Dos Rios State Park.” Eric wonders how Alvarado-Gil’s endorsement of Joe Biden (just prior to her flip) will sit with all those red voters.

KCRA. CA state senator who flipped parties won’t say who she’ll support for president.
Synopsis: Marie Alvarado-Gil became the first state senator in 80 years to change parties last week. Reporter Ashley Zavala asked her some very tough questions and got only a few plausible answers. On more than one occasion, MAG’s comms director tried to stop the interview – but Zavala pressed on.
MAD Take: Asking tough questions takes guts, which is why it is so seldom seen on local TV. Can’t figure out MAG’s comment that she would rather be “an underdog than a hot dog.” Isn’t she both now?

Turlock Journal. Young to challenge Alvarado-Gil for District 4 senate seat.
Synopsis: Joe Cortez writes about former Hughson Mayor Jeramy Young’s decision to enter the 2026 race early for Alvarado-Gil’s Senate seat. Currently the Livermore chief of police, Young is a strident “true conservative.”

Turlock Journal. Alvarado-Gil goes red; state senator leaves Democratic Party.  
Synopsis: Joe Cortez details Alvarado-Gil’s defection, citing an unnamed Democrat saying there is no path for Alvarado-Gil’s re-election in two years. She discarded her Democrat voters and will be unlikely to convince Republicans she’s sincere about her newfound allegiance to conservativism. Veteran political strategist Mike Lynch disagreed, saying her track record gives her a good chance to win over voters.

Sick pay for heat days?

Fresno Bee. Indigenous farmworkers in Central CA have little safety net when it’s too hot. 
Synopsis: Reporter Maria Ortiz-Briones focuses on a 70-year-old Madera woman who loses shifts when it’s too hot to work. Labor contractors say they’re looking out for her, but she says she can’t make ends meet without work. The CA Farm Bureau Federation points out that farmers are held liable for worker safety, meaning they must take these factors into considerations – including cutting shifts short when temps approach triple digits. Workers acknowledge they’ve got “plenty of water and clean bathrooms” but many can’t work beyond 9 a.m. some days. Some people want unemployment benefits for farm workers while the CA Taxpayers Assn says that will bankrupt the system.

FFA unfairly judges judging team

Westside Express. Los Banos FFA denied recognition for international achievement.
Synopsis: The Los Banos High Dairy Judging Team went to Scotland’s Royal Highland Show earlier this summer, and initially placed fourth. But a recalculation of the results moved the team up to third, displacing a team from Wisconsin. But the FFA refuses to accept the change or recognize the students’ accomplishments. Their advisor is angry.

Mail handler killed in Atwater

Merced Focus. Atwater federal prison employee dies after exposure to substance in inmate mail.
Synopsis: Two people were sickened and supervisor Marc Fisher died. It could have been fentanyl contained in the letter, but the authorities aren’t saying. He was on the cusp of retirement. His union wants a thorough investigation.

Fight over a safer AI

Cal Matters. Why Silicon Valley wants to kill this bill.
Synopsis: SB 1047 would demand full disclosure on AI programs that have the ability to kill people or be used to attack infrastructure, among other harmful outcomes. Many ethical scientists say it’s the least we can do, legislatively, to protect humanity. But venture capitalists say it will stymie innovation and hurt start-ups by burdening them with regulations. Interestingly, it’s not the start-ups squawking the loudest, but Google, Meta, et al.  
MAD Take: I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.